 "Syria's transition takes shape as committee is formed to draft constitutional declaration")
Syria’s interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced on Sunday the creation of a commission to create a constitutional statement for the country’s transition following the removal of long-time dictator Bashar Assad.
After Assad was overthrown on December 8, ending 13 years of deadly conflict and more than 50 years of his family’s tyrannical reign, the new government is concentrating on reconstructing Syria and its institutions.
In order to create “the constitutional declaration that regulates the transitional phase” in Syria, the president announced “the formation of a committee of experts” that included two women.
In a statement, the seven-member group stated that it will “submit its proposals to the president” without giving a time frame.
In late January, Sharaa, leader of Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded Assad’s overthrow, was appointed interim president for an unspecified period.
Syria’s new authorities have repealed the Assad-era constitution, and Sharaa has said rewriting it could take up to three years.
In late January, Sharaa promised a “constitutional declaration” to serve as a “legal reference” during the country’s transitional period.
Sunday’s announcement came “based on the Syrian people’s aspirations in building their state based on the rule of law, and building on the outcomes of the Syrian national dialogue conference”, said the presidency.
It also came “with the aim of preparing the legal framework regulating the transitional phase”, it added.
A national dialogue conference held this week in Damascus set out a path for the new Syria.
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The committee includes Abdul Hamid al-Awak, who holds a doctorate in constitutional law and lectures at a university in Turkey, and Yasser al-Huwaish, who was appointed this year as dean of Damascus university’s law faculty.
It also includes Bahia Mardini, a journalist with a doctorate in law who has been living in Britain – one of two women on the panel – and Ismail al-Khalfan, who holds a doctorate in law specialising in international law, and who this year was appointed law faculty dean at Aleppo university.
Another committee member, Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, holds a doctorate in law specialising in international law from Idlib university, where he graduated in 2023.
The final statement of this week’s dialogue conference called for “a constitutional committee to prepare a draft permanent constitution for the country that achieves balance between authorities, sets the values of justice, freedom and equality, and establishes a state of law an institutions”.
Syria’s conflict broke out in 2011 after Assad brutally repressed anti-government protests.
It spiralled into a complex conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more domestically and abroad and battered the economy, infrastructure and industry.
In December, a caretaker government was appointed to steer the country until March 1, when a new government was due to be formed.
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